Compounds
The bulk of Kah lexicon consists of compound words, made up from two of more roots. This means it is a vital process to understand truly how the language works. Compounding basically means that two or more words are combined in order to create a new lexeme with a new, unique meaning. The advantage of this technique of word formation is, that the meaning of the new word can be derived from the individual elements it consists of. For example the English wordbedroom means "a room containing a bed". This kind of logic can also be used on a much more basic level: the Kah word for "argue" is ruka which consists of a combination of the rootsru "conflict" and ka "speak". Kah was designed an oligosynthetic language, meaning a language with a very limited number of roots, which put together form the lexicon from wich statements are made. Kah has a couple of hundred basic roots from which all of the lexicon was derived. Frequent roots Some roots turn up quite frequently, like do for "house" or "building": yudo - house talado - factory angado - stable fondo - prison kwando - school The following roots occur in compounds frequently: do - house, building ta - time pa - money pu - moral ka - say, word bu - man wana - woman sa - shape shi - manner, way, like so - water, fluid, secretion shum - powder, grains ki - food, mouth za - take ze - back, behind ku - front, before no - direction nu - go ro - round, cycle, ball ru - conflict yo - all wi - many, much ni - motorized vehicle kwa - one Logic Not all compounds are entirely logical but merely a collection of basic ideas describing something: zedodi - snail ze + do + di back + house + bug raju - to be patient ra + ju sit + feel sempe - bone sen + pe body + stick Phonotactics of compounding Situations may occur that contradict the phonotactical rules of Kah as explained in the chapter on phonology. In these situations the following adjustments are made for the words to fit Kah phonology: When a root ending in a nasal stop (either -m, -n or -ng) is put in front of another root, the nasal stop is made homorganic with the initial consonant of the root following it: chen + pe = chempe kom + ka = konka rum + so = runso When a root ending in a nasal stop (either -m, -n , -s, -l or -ng) is put in front of f, v, h, l, or r, the final vowel of this root is reduplicated: lam + vun = lamavun When a root ending with -s is put in front of another root starting with anything other than p, t, k,w or y, the -s is followed by a reduplication of the vowel preceding it: bas + no = basano yus + do = yusudo When a root ending with -s is put in front of a root starting with y, the combination of s and yresults in sh: mas + yun = mashun papas + yun = papashun bos + ya = bosha When a root ending with -s is put in front of a root starting with p, t or k, the -s is left untouched and directly precedes the second root: tus + ka = tuska bas + tan = bastan tus + pu = tuspu When a root ending with -l is put in front of a root starting with anything other than p, t or k, the -l is followed by a reduplication of the vowel preceding it: mel + mbe = melembe When a root ending with -l is put in front of a root starting with p, t, or k, the -l is left untouched and directly precedes the second root: mul + ka = mulka bal + ka = balka When a root ending in a -i is put in front of a root starting with a y the i is absorbed into the y: wai + yun = wayun nai + ya = naya But when the result is a combination iya or iyo this is denoted as ia and io respectively: fi + ya = fia ti + yo = tio When a root ending in a -i is put in front of a root starting with a i the two merge into a y: nai + io = nayo When a root ending in a -i is put in front of a root starting with a vowel, the final i changes into ay: vai + an = vayan poi + an = poyan When a root ending in a -u is put in front of a root starting with a w the u is absorbed into thew: sau + wal = sawal gau + win = gawin The suffix -ng The suffix -ng- is used to change the meaning of a word to something opposite in meaning: When it is suffixed to a word ending in a consonant, the preceding vowel is inserted before it: When it's added to a monosyllabic root, this root is reduplicated: Only a very small number of roots inherently end in -ng, such as: meng – none, zero nong – not, no mong – to reverse, undo Compound roots Most of the compound roots do not occur on their own but need an affix in order to become a word. This is done in order to be able to distinguish between words and roots. For instance the root nu"go" does not mean anything on it's own. It needs to be combined with the rootde "come" in order to produce an actual verb meaning "to go": denu. Likewise the word for water is aso, which consists of the basic root so "water, fluid" plus the inanimate nominal prefix a-. All of the current compound roots in use can be found below: